Indefinites & Quantifiers
How do languages build the paradigm of someone, anyone, no one, and everyone?
Most often these words share one interrogative base (who?) plus a small particle — “also”, “every”, “some”, “any” — that sets the reading. A few languages, English among them, lexicalise the series instead.
策略
Interrogative + additive (“also / even”)
[wh-] + [also / even]Builds NPI / negative / universal readings. Japanese 誰も (dare-mo), Mandarin 誰也, Korean 누구도, Welsh neb (historical), Turkish kim + de.
Interrogative + universal (“every / all”)
[wh-] + [every / -ever]Builds free-choice readings. Japanese 誰でも (dare-demo), Mandarin 誰都, Korean 누구나 / 누구든지, English wh-ever forms.
Interrogative + indefinite (“some / any”)
[wh-] + [some]Builds existential indefinites. Japanese 誰か (dare-ka), Korean 누군가, Russian кто-то / кто-нибудь, Mandarin 誰 in question contexts.
Dedicated indefinite series
some- / any- / no- / every- + NA lexicalised paradigm of independent words built from determiner-like elements. English (someone/anyone/no one/everyone), German (jemand, niemand, jeder).
“One”-based indefinite
[some / any / no] + [one / person]A numeral or noun meaning “one / person” is bound by a quantifier-like element. French quelqu’un (some-one), Italian qualcuno, Spanish alguien (< Latin aliquis-unus).
N-word (negative concord)
NEG-word, co-occurs with sentential NEGA morphologically negative indefinite that requires (or strongly prefers) clausal negation. Russian никто, Spanish nadie, Italian nessuno, French personne.
Paradigm grid: who → someone, anyone, no one, everyone
Across rows you see one language’s paradigm. Across columns you see how each function gets built. Where the same form covers more than one cell (a common pattern in Japanese, Korean, Mandarin) you can trace the syncretism by eye.
| Language | someone Existential indefinite, positive declarative. | anyone (NPI) Used under negation, in questions, and other negative-polarity contexts. | anyone (free choice) Used in generics, modals, conditionals; “anyone at all”. | no one Negative indefinite. May be a dedicated word or a NPI under sentential negation. | everyone Universal quantifier over people (全稱詞 in the East Asian linguistic tradition). |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
English Indo-European › Germanic | someone / somebody Dedicated indefinite series | anyone / anybody Dedicated indefinite series | anyone (at all) Dedicated indefinite series same form as NPI; FCI reading needs the right context | no one / nobody Dedicated indefinite series | everyone / everybody Dedicated indefinite series |
French Indo-European › Romance | quelqu’un “One”-based indefinite lit. “some-one” | qui que ce soit / personne (+ ne) N-word (negative concord) personne is the n-word, requires ne | n’importe qui Interrogative + universal (“every / all”) lit. “it doesn’t matter who” | personne (+ ne) N-word (negative concord) | tout le monde Dedicated indefinite series lit. “all the world” |
Spanish Indo-European › Romance | alguien “One”-based indefinite historically aliquis + unus | nadie (+ no) N-word (negative concord) negative concord | cualquiera Interrogative + universal (“every / all”) | nadie N-word (negative concord) | todos / todo el mundo Dedicated indefinite series |
German Indo-European › Germanic | jemand Dedicated indefinite series | jemand / irgendwer Interrogative + indefinite (“some / any”) irgend- is the indefinite particle | irgendwer / wer auch immer Interrogative + universal (“every / all”) | niemand Dedicated indefinite series | jeder / alle / jedermann Dedicated indefinite series |
Russian Indo-European › Slavic | кто-то kto-to Interrogative + indefinite (“some / any”) -то is the specific indefinite particle | кто-нибудь kto-nibud’ Interrogative + indefinite (“some / any”) -нибудь for non-specific / questions | кто угодно / кто бы то ни был kto ugodno / kto by to ni byl Interrogative + universal (“every / all”) | никто (+ не) nikto (+ ne) N-word (negative concord) | все / каждый vse / každyj Dedicated indefinite series |
Japanese Japonic | 誰か dare-ka Interrogative + indefinite (“some / any”) か = indefinite particle | 誰か / 誰も dare-ka / dare-mo Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) 誰か carries the reading in questions; 誰も requires sentential negation, where it yields “no one” | 誰でも dare-demo Interrogative + universal (“every / all”) でも = even-if particle; 何でも parallels for things | 誰も + neg dare-mo Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) same form as the NPI; the negative reading comes from the clausal negation | 誰もが / 皆 / 全員 dare-mo ga / mina / zen’in Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) 誰もが (with NOM が) is the affirmative universal; 皆 / 全員 are lexical universals |
Korean Koreanic | 누군가 nugunga Interrogative + indefinite (“some / any”) | 누구도 / 아무도 nugudo / amudo Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) 아무 is a dedicated NPI / FCI root | 누구나 / 누구든지 nuguna / nugudeunji Interrogative + universal (“every / all”) | 아무도 + neg amudo Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) | 모두 / 모든 사람 modu / modeun saram Dedicated indefinite series |
Mandarin Chinese Sino-Tibetan › Sinitic | 有人 / 某人 yǒu rén / mǒu rén Dedicated indefinite series lit. “there-is person / a-certain person” | 誰 / 任何人 shéi / rènhé rén Interrogative + indefinite (“some / any”) 誰 carries the reading in questions; 任何人 covers the other polarity contexts | 誰都 / 任何人 shéi dōu / rènhé rén Interrogative + universal (“every / all”) 都 = universal selector | 沒人 / 誰也不 / 誰都不 méi rén / shéi yě bù / shéi dōu bù Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) 誰也不 is the wh-additive NPI under negation | 大家 / 每個人 / 人人 dàjiā / měi gè rén / rénrén Dedicated indefinite series 大家 lit. “big-family”; 全稱 (universal-term) tradition |
Turkish Turkic › Oghuz | biri / birisi “One”-based indefinite bir = “one” | kimse / hiç kimse N-word (negative concord) | herhangi biri Dedicated indefinite series | hiç kimse (+ neg verb) N-word (negative concord) requires negation; effectively negative concord | herkes Dedicated indefinite series |
Hindi Indo-European › Indo-Aryan | कोई koī Dedicated indefinite series | कोई भी koī bhī Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) भी = also/even | कोई भी koī bhī Interrogative + additive (“also / even”) | कोई नहीं / कोई भी नहीं koī nahī̃ / koī bhī nahī̃ Dedicated indefinite series | सब / सब लोग / हर कोई sab / sab log / har koī Dedicated indefinite series |
Hebrew (Modern) Afro-Asiatic › Semitic | מישהו mishehu Dedicated indefinite series | אף אחד / מישהו af exad / mishehu N-word (negative concord) af exad lit. “even one”; מישהו carries the reading in questions | כל אחד kol exad Dedicated indefinite series | אף אחד (+ neg) af exad N-word (negative concord) | כולם / כל אחד kulam / kol exad Dedicated indefinite series |
Welsh Indo-European › Celtic | rhywun “One”-based indefinite rhyw “some” + un “one” | neb N-word (negative concord) neb is the NPI / negative indefinite | unrhyw un Dedicated indefinite series | neb (+ neg) N-word (negative concord) | pawb Dedicated indefinite series |
列的聚类
当同一语言对两列使用同一个动词时，两列即视为接近。分支在越靠右处合并，表示越多语言将该组合视为一体；表格与地图的列序依此树排列，因此相邻的列行为相似。
Someone sits at the far end. No language here uses its verb for anyone (NPI), anyone (free choice), no one or everyone.
例句
在「自然 / 直译 / 注释」之间切换，对比同一概念在各语言中的不同表达方式。
“Someone came.”
Existential indefinite in positive declaratives.
誰かが来た。
dare-ka ga kita.
- 自然
- Someone came.
参考文献
- Giannakidou 2011 01Giannakidou, Anastasia (2011).Negative and positive polarity items: Variation, licensing, and compositionality.In von Heusinger, Klaus; Maienborn, Claudia; Portner, Paul (eds.), Semantics: An International Handbook of Natural Language Meaning. De Gruyter Mouton. 1660–1712.
- Haspelmath 1997 02Haspelmath, Martin (1997).Indefinite Pronouns.Oxford University Press.
- Kratzer & Shimoyama 2002 03Kratzer, Angelika; Shimoyama, Junko (2002).Indeterminate pronouns: The view from Japanese.In Otsu, Yukio (eds.), Proceedings of the Third Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics. Hituzi Syobo, Tokyo. 1–25.
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